Paladino: Center that gives abortion drug has lease

BUFFALO - Carl Paladino, the Republican gubernatorial candidate who opposes abortion in almost all circumstances, including rape and incest, defended Thursday his family's rental of office space to a women's health center where an abortion-inducing medication is distributed.

Citing an existing lease, Paladino said his son, William, who manages all of his properties, and another investor had no choice but to continue housing the Planned Parenthood clinic in Niagara Falls after acquiring the building it was in about a year ago.

"There was a pre-existing lease," Paladino said in a brief interview on the matter at his campaign headquarters here. "We can't get out of a contract."

The clinic provides preventive and primary care to 4,000 women and 3,000 children a year, said Tracey Brooks, president of Planned Parenthood Advocates of New York. Brooks said about 3 percent of its services involve abortion counseling or the abortion drug RU-486, a pill that can induce abortion in women up to nine weeks of pregnancy.

News of Paladino's relationship with the abortion provider surfaced Thursday in the New York Post, putting him on the defensive again as he prepared for a meeting Friday with the Republican Governors Association and its chief, Haley Barbour. The group could be an important source of funding and resources, but is concerned about Paladino's chances of defeating Democrat Andrew Cuomo, Republican sources said Thursday.

Paladino, who has said he supports abortion only if the life of the mother is at stake, said his company demolished the Planned Parenthood offices to build a Rite Aid shortly after acquiring the building. The lease required the Paladinos to find new space for the clinic, he said.

Asked if his company would renew the lease when it was finished, he said: "I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

He said he did not know when the lease ended. Brooks also did not know when the lease was up.

Brooks said Paladino's plan to cut all state funding to health centers that counsel on or provide abortion services would have the effect of shutting down the Niagara Fall clinic and others.

"That would leave 3,000 children and 4,000 women without any preventive health services in that area," Brooks said.